Disco Music

Disco music is more than just a genre of dance music; it was a part of pop culture, society and an integral part of music history. Drawing from its roots in the Philly and New York City Soul Sound, disco evolved over the years and from around 1973 through the early 80’s (although it was popular in Europe for much longer), disco music was a top draw at the nightclubs and the Billboard charts.

Let’s explore a music timeline and help to define what disco music was and what it has meant to the history of music.

Disco music involves several music genres adeptly blending together to create the unique ‘disco sound’. Early disco music started in the US in the underground clubs of major cities, particularly in New York City and was largely an urban American phenomenon and was influenced by funk and soul music. The vocals were often over the top with hypnotic electric bass lines and lush background sounds that reverberated through innovative production techniques. New technologies blended in pieces of Jazz, Classical, Calypso, Rock, Latin, Soul, Funk helped to make the disco sound unique. Labels such as SalSoul Records, Western Records, Casablanca and Prelude inspired and drew in some prolific European dance-track producers into this new music genre; such as Giorigio Moroder and Jean-Marc Cerrone.

Another important element to the disco sound was the innovative recording techniques of Tom Moulton, who, wanting to extend the musical experience, developed the art of the ‘remix,’ where DJs and sound techs would re-edit songs utilizing reel to reel tape machines. They would often add new percussion, new sounds and new sections to an already established recording making a new sound through simple technology.

Now that we know more about the genre and the people who helped define it, let’s continue with our disco timeline. Some disagree as to the first real disco song, but three early cuts get the nod here: 1969’s “Only The Strong Survive,” by Jerry Butler, 1972’s “Soul Makossa,” by Manu Dibango and Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra with “Love's Theme” (#1 1973). In 1974, the disco sound hit the top of the Billboard charts with “Rock The Boat,” by the Hues Corporation. Other chart-topping songs included “Rock Your Baby,” by George McCrae (#1 1974) and “Walking In Rhythm,” by the Blackbyrds (#6 1975).

Hoping to cash in on a new fad, the charts were flooded with disco cuts such as Gloria Gaynor’s 1975 remake of the Jackson 5 song “Never Can Say Goodbye” (#9 1974)and the disco anthem “I Will Survive,” which hit number one in 1978. If there was such a thing as bubble-gum disco, KC and the Sunshine Band had a stranglehold on that with a string of disco-themed top five hits including: “Get Down Tonight” (#1 1975), “That's The Way I Like It” (#1 1975), “Shake, Shake, Shake, (Shake Your Booty)” (#1 1976), “I'm Your Boogie Man” (#1 1977) and 1977’s #2 hit “Keep It Comin Love.”

What many don’t realize is that while the musicians may have dominated the headlines, the behind the scenes stories of disco music are just as important as the genre’s meteoric rise. As previously mentioned, the songwriters, the music producers and the DJ’s who spun the records were just as important to the popularity of the genre. Influential DJs and re-mixers who helped to establish what became known as the "disco sound" included David Mancuso, Tom Moulton, Nicky Siano, Shep Pettibone, Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, and later, New York–born Chicago "Godfather of House" Frankie Knuckles. Disco was also shaped by nightclub DJs such as Francis Grasso, who used multiple record players to seamlessly mix tracks from genres such as soul, funk and pop music at discotheques, and was the forerunner to later styles such as hip hop and house.

But, we cannot talk about disco music without mentioning the Bee Gees, who put a stranglehold on the genre and the "Queen of Disco," Donna Summer. Together, they unleashed a slew of rabidly popular disco cuts such as “Jive Talkin’ (#1 1975), “Nights On Broadway” (#7 1975), “You Should Be Dancing” (#1 1976), “Love So Right” (#3 1976) from the Bee Gees and Donna Summers’ disco cuts like “Love To Love You Baby” (#2 1975), “Last Dance” (#3 1978), “Hot Stuff” (#1 1979), “Bad Girls” (#1 1979) and “Dim All The Lights,” which topped out at number 2 in 1979. Summer went on to be a major force in popular music.

Lest we forget the best-selling soundtrack of all time, done by the Bee Gees called Saturday Night Fever, which not only brought disco music to millions on the radio airwaves, but internationally as well in the form of a blockbuster movie. The soundtrack spawned huge hits for the Bee Gees like “How Deep Is Your Love” (#1 1977), the legendary cut, “Stayin Alive” (#1 1977) and “Night Fever,” which also hit the top position for the group in 1978. The Bee Gees scored three more number one hits with “Too Much Heaven” (1978), “Tragedy” (1979) and “Love You Inside Out;” which also hit number one in 1979.

Other notable disco cuts and certainly not an all-inclusive list included: “Brick House” by the Commodores (#5 1977), The Jackson 5’s "Dancing Machine" (#2 1974), Barry White’s "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" (#2 1974), LaBelle’s "Lady Marmalade" (#1 1975) and Silver Convention’s "Fly Robin Fly" (#1 1975). Chic's "Le Freak" (#1 1978) became an instant classic and is heard almost everywhere disco is mentioned; other hits by Chic include the often-sampled "Good Times" (#1 1979) and "Everybody Dance" (#38 1978).

But as disco grew in intensity, other artists, who did not really record that type of music, almost embarrassingly joined in the disco craze and recorded their own disco cuts including: Rod Stewart’s clunker “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy" (#1 1979), Barry Manilow with “[Barry Manilow:Copacabana (At The Copa)]” (#8 1978), [Wings] “[Wings:Goodnight Tonight]” (#5 1979) and ["Dolly Parton"’s] “[Dolly Parton:Baby I’m Burning]” (#25 1978) just to name a few.

Furthermore, the disco craze hit the television airwaves with Marty Angelo's "Disco Step-by-Step Television Show" in 1975, Steve Marcus' "Disco Magic/Disco 77", Eddie Rivera's "Soap Factory" and Merv Griffin's, "Dance Fever," hosted by Deney Terrio, who was credited with teaching actor [John Travolta] to dance for his upcoming role in the hit movie [Saturday Night Fever]. Several parodies of the disco style were created, most notably "[Rick Dees:Disco Duck]" by DJ ["Rick Dees" and His Cast Of idiots] and "[Frank Zappa:Dancin' Fool]" that was recorded by [Frank Zappa] and these songs were actually laughing at the disco lifestyle.

In the late 70’s, people and music in general, were tired of this fad and some listeners objected to the perceived sexual promiscuity, cocaine-filled celebrity hangouts like Manhattan’s Studio 54 (which was always in the news) and drug use that had become associated with the genre. The disco scene was dying off, the term “disco sucks” became part of the vocabulary at the time and some contend that “the day disco died” refers to an anti-disco demonstration that was held in Chicago by a couple of rock DJs, Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. You see, the pair, along with the son of the Chicago White Sox baseball team, Michael Veeck, concocted a “Disco Demolition Night," a promotional event between baseball games at Comisky Park. During the event, the DJs blew up piles of disco records and the event ended in a riot, with the baseball team having to cancel the second game of the doubleheader because of the damage to the field and stands. Soon, the television industry followed suit, in fact a recurring theme of a popular television show, “WKRP In Cincinnati” was the put down of disco music and its culture. The anti-disco sentiment soon caught on with Top 40 radio and listeners of many of the Top 40 stations encouraged the stations to drop disco songs from their playlists.

Although the disco era in the US was pretty much over by 1980, the disco culture and music continued past this date in Europe. The transition from the late-1970s disco styles to the early-1980s dance styles was marked by the change from the complex arrangements performed by large ensembles of studio session musicians (including a horn section and an orchestral string section), to a much leaner sound, in which one or two singers would performed to the accompaniment of synthesizer keyboards and drum machines.

In addition, dance music during the 1981–83 periods borrowed elements from blues and jazz, creating a style somewhat different from the disco of the 1970s. Disco music had died in the States, but went on to influence dance music for many years to come.

Disco Records and Disco CDs

Find all kinds of rare, hard to find and out-of-print Disco records and Disco CDs on MusicStack.

Bee Gees
Jerry Butler
Barry White
George McCrae
KC and the Sunshine Band
Donna Summer
Hues Corporation
Gloria Gaynor
Commodores
Jackson 5
LaBelle
Silver Convention
Chic
Rod Stewart
Sylvester

Disco Websites

Disco Disco is a genre of dance music that originated in African American, gay and Hispanic communities in the United States, especially New York City, in the late 1960's and early 1970s.
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